
Class JLSjZSIZ. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



T 




hjAy 









\^^/'y^^ 



/ 



..V 



s^ 






J 



Copyright, 

1882. 

By JAQUES & MARCUS. 



f 




INTRODUCTION. 



A STRONG tendency to individuality has of late years 
manifested itself throughout the great Art universe in 
the renunciation cf old conventionalities, and in a de- 
termined stride in the direction of free taste. 

A complete revolution has overturned the old prov- 
ince of aesthetics, and forced a decided change in 
every department of Art productions. 

To realize this new condition in the material world, 
it is only necessary to consider the present style of 
house furniture and decoration, and contrast it with 
that of less than a quarter of a century ago. 

We are a people given to extremes, and eager en- 
thusiasm for novelty is but too liable to overstep the 
bounds of moderation. 

Still, this same tendency to impatience under re- 
straint, and to audacious independence, if directed in the 
right channel, would in time develop a national taste 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

both daring and original. The fashions of the day 
tend to the encouragement of decided personaHty in 
dress, and the question naturally suggests itself : If 
in apparel, why not in articles of adornment ? 

This leads to the consideration of the scope afforded 
us for originality in the selection of jewels for personal 
use and enjoyment, in the stones that are here introduced. 

There is a large class of gems of rare beauty, color 
and brilliancy, among which there are many instances 
of stones that it is almost impossible to duplicate. 

Strange to say, these gems have until recently 
been entirely neglected, overlooked perhaps through 
ignorance of their very existence, certainly through 
ignorance of their beauty. 

Why should not jewels, possessing such attractive 
properties and unlimited variety, be more sought after 
by the public ? 

A more general knowledge of their beauty would un- 
doubtedly insure their popularity, and consequently in- 
crease the demand. It is only because they are so 
little known that few specimens are at present found 
in the market. 



IN TR on UC TION, 5 

As far as scarcity is concerned, many of these 
stones are even rarer than the diamond or sapphire — 
the green garnet and the blue and pink tourmalines may 
be mentioned as instances. 

Others might also be cited, but they are left to ap- 
pear under their own special classification, without fur- 
ther introduction. 



SOMETHING ABOUT 

NEGLECTED GEMS. 



TtlE ZIRCON. 



The names Hyacinth and Jacinth are applied indis- 
criminately to the red variety of this family ; whereas 
the yellow, gray, brown and green specimens are 
termed Ja7^goons. 

It is difficult in many instances to distinguish at a 
glance the members of this family from some of the 
other precious stones ; but classification can always be 
determined by the specific gravity, which is greater in 
the zircon than in any other gem. 

The ancients showed a marked predilection for the 
Hyacinth on account of a pleasing superstition that it 
Would induce sleep, and procure for the wearer wis- 
dom, honor and riches. Evil spirits were supposed to 



8 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS, 

have a particular aversion to the stone, and to flee the 
presence of the possessor. 

The Hyacinth is particularly well adapted to intagl- 
ios, the grain being fine, and the stone showing dis- 
tinctly all the lines of the engraver. Even stones 
that have a dull center are susceptible of great beauty, 
as the design covers the dull portion, while the edges 
remain full of nre and brilliancy. 

Gems of various kinds are placed in the hands 
of the engraver, who forces even the hard sapphire to 
yield to the merciless diamond point of his tool, and 
receive the image, now of an ancient warrior now of a 
mythological deity. 

THE CHRYSOBERYL. 

This is the name of the crystal most resembling the 
sapphire in hardness, but differing entirely from it in 
color. 

The several varieties of the chrysoberyl family are so 
totally unlike in appearance that one would never rec- 
ognize as sisters the Oriental Catseye and the Alexan- 
drite of the Ural Mountains. 



SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 9 

The latter is a most mysterious and fascinating gem, 
changing its whole aspect when taken from daylight 
into the presence of a Hghted candle or gas-jet. By 
day the stone is green, with a slight tinge of olive, re- 
sembHng somewhat a tourmaline, though of greater 
brilliancy ; but by artificial light the green entirely dis- 
appears, and in its place a reddish luster, bordering on 
purple, pervades the whole jewel. 

This was the favorite gem of Alexander II., Em- 
peror of Russia ; hence the derivation of the name. 

The Catseye is almost too well-known to be described, 
but it may be mentioned that the value does not de- 
pend upon any one of the many colors in which it oc- 
curs — yellow, gray, brown or green — but upon the beauty 
and distinctness of the stripe which traverses its surface. 

For many years the true catseye was supposed by 
jewelers to be a sapphire, and was named sapphire cats- 
eye in contradistinction to the qicartz catseye of the 
Hartz Mountains, and to the crocidoUtes of the Orange 
River in Africa ; but the real chrysoberyl catseye can be 
readily distinguished from these last by its extreme 
hardness and translucency. 



lo SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS, 

Old superstitions attribute to this stone, as to the 
hyacinth, various forms of good-luck, asserting that the 
eye of Fortune was bound to keep ever a constant 
vigil over the life and undertakings of the possessor. 

THE TOURMALINE. 

Superstition might with equal reason have attached 
itself to the Tourmaline on account of its wonderful 
magnetic property. 

This stone, when placed in hot ashes, will alternately 
attract and repel them ; and if in this heated condition 
it be embedded in cold ashes, it will continue to affect 
them in the same way, the electricity being generated 
by difference of temperature. 

The tourmaline, when first brought to Europe by the 
Dutch, was named Aschentrekker on this very account. 

Saxe Holmef makes use of this electric property as 
the foundation of a short story entitled, " My Tourma- 
line ; " but he has greatly exaggerated the magnetic 
power of the stone. 

Although found in various quarters of the globe, the 



SOME THING ABO UT NEGLECTED GEMS. 1 1 

tourmaline rarely exists in a clear and perfect state, 
suitable for the purposes of the jeweler. 

The ordinary stone, ranging in color from pale apple- 
green to dark olive, and even black, is frequently met 
with in Maine and in several other of the United States ; 
but the Brazilian Indicolite, of a rich blue tint, and the 
red, yellow, brown and gray varieties, the production of 
the Ceylon mines, are of extreme rarity. Fine red 
tourmalines are of especially uncommon occurrence, 
and are as beautiful as costly rubies. 

When grouped together tourmalines produce most 
gorgeous effects and brilliant harmony of color, rivaling 
in splendor the time-worn emeralds, sapphires and 
diamonds. 

They rarely require a diamond setting to develop 
their charm, but appear to the best advantage when 
grouped with the other members of the same family. 
They are chiefly composed of alumina or crystalized 
clay (the material of the sapphire), with silica, and the 
color varies according to the presence of foreign 
minerals. The green tourmaline is shown to contain 
a proportion of potash and protoxide of iron ; whereas 



12 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 

the red has none, but, instead, small quantities of lime, 
soda and manganese. 

Among the natural crystals, which are usually long 
and narrow, an occasional parti-colored stone may be 
seen, combining red and green, and sometimes yellow, 
red and brown. One specimen in the British Museum 
shows five distinct varieties of color. 

THE OPAL. 

The precious or noble Opal is one of the most ex- 
quisite gems in existence ; all the colors of the most 
beautiful jewels being here united in one. When held 
between the eye and the light it appears of a pale, 
milky-reddish blue, but when seen by reflected light it 
displays all the colors of the rainbow, in flakes, flashes 
or sparks. When the colors are in small flakes, it is 
termed, by jewelers, " harlequin " opal, on account of 
the resemblance to the motley tints of the harlequin's 
dress. 

AVhfen fine these are much prized, but some persons 
prefer stones having the colored fire in large flashes. 



SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS, 13 

THE SAPPHIRE. 

K Few persons are aware, even those who possess sap- 
phires, that the stone is found in any other color than 
blue ; but many different tints are familiar to the 
mineralogist — white, yellow, green, pink, red, blue, black, 
violet and opalescent. 

These are all known as the corzmdum jewels, being 
crystalized clay, as the diamond is crystaUzed carbon. 
But the latter stone, though produced by nature in many 
colors, always retains its name, whereas every variety of 
sapphire has a different appellation. 

The blue is the well-known sapphire, the red is the 
ruby, and the others are named after the stones they 
most resemble, as oriental amethyst, oriental emerald, 
oriental topaz, etc., but they are all true sapphires. 

Many persons improperly, and through ignorance, 
apply the term oiHental at random to choice specimens 
of every stone, whereas the name belongs exclusively 
to. varieties of the sapphire family. 

It might here be mentioned that the mines where 
these stones are found, produce also the most beautiful 



14 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 

specimens of the ruby, and are the monopoly of the 
King of Burmah. 

They are rigorously guarded and worked by the 
natives^ no European being allowed to approach them. 
Fine stones can be removed from the country only by 
smuggling, as the order is imperative to retain all for 
the king's treasury. 

When a particularly large ruby is discovered, it is 
the custom to send out a procession of grandees with 
soldiers and elephants to escort it Math honor to the 
palace. 

One of the titles of the King of Burmah is Lord of 
the Rubies. 

A strange variety of corundum is the star sapphire, 
which has the appearance of a six-pointed star when 
held in the sun-light. The lines crossing in the center 
suggest a catseye striped in three directions. The 
color of these stones is usually gray, though pink and 
blue specimens are occasionally met with. 

Quite as rare and unfamiliar to the public are the 
many varieties of fancy colored sapphires, before al- 
luded to. These stones should generally be associated 



SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 15 

with diamonds, as their delicate tints, more especially 
in yellow and pink, are thereby thrown into greater 
prominence. 

THE GARNET. 

Under this head the ordinary red garnet at once sug- 
gests itself, and few of the uninitiated know that the 
green Uwm-oimte, the yellow Essoiiite^ the purple Alman- 
dme, and the brown Colophonite are identically the same 
stone, differing only in color. 

Garnets are found in large quantities in as many as 
one hundred localities in the United States ; but fine, 
pure crystals in any other color than red are extremely 
rare. The green variety is particularly beautiful, being 
far richer in tone than the emerald, and possessing great 
brilliancy. All the fancy garnets are, as a rule, exceed- 
ingly lustrous, unusual care being taken in the cutting 
to produce the best possible effects. 

The ancients confounded the garnet with the ruby, 
and attributed to it the same happy influence with which 
the latter was supposed to be invested. 

In former times red stones of every kind were termed 



1 6 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 

Carbuncles, but the term should be limited to the red 
garnet when cut without facets, smooth on top, and flat 
or concave beneath. 

THE BERYL. 

Bej^yl is the scientific name for the emerald and aqua- 
marine. The stones are identical, with the exception of 
the color ; the emerald, which is well-known, being green, 
and the aqua-marine of a pale blue or light sea-green 
tint, as the name implies. 

THE PERIDOT. 

Olivine or Peridot is the name of another variety of 
green stone, resembling in appearance the tourmaline, 
but readily distinguished by its non-electric properties 
when heated. It belongs to the family of chrysolites, 
although the chrysolite proper is of a light greenish 
yellow. The peridot is the more beautiful stone, how- 
ever, and is sometimes found of great size and entirely 
free from flaws. 

These gems come from Brazil and Ceylon, but do not 
exist in large quantities. 



SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 17 

, THE SPINEL. 

Red spinels are now being largely sold in place of ru- 
bies. The latter stones have become so scarce that few 
choice specimens can be fomid, and on account of 
their great rarity bring extravagant prices. 

The spinel ruby is light in color and shows an admix- 
ture of yellow, by means of which it is easily distin- 
guished from the ruby proper. When the red spinel is 
heated it becomes brown, but if allowed to cool slowly, 
it changes to green, then passes into an almost colorless 
state, and finally resumes its pristine color. The fancy 
colored spinels are blue, green, violet, black, and white, 
and all the innumerable tints shading from these colors. 
It is only quite recently that the lapidary has directed 
his attention to the cutting of the fancy stones mentioned 
in this pamphlet, but the encouragement of popular 
appreciation has been sufficient to warrant the jeweler 
in urging on these incipient efforts. 



1 8 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 

THE SEARCH FOR THE BEAUTIFUL. 

The desire for personal adornment is ingrained in 
human nature. The wish to be beautiful and to have 
the beautiful is a simple and natural desire that has 
existed in the hearts of mankind longer than history can 
tell. Children and savages decorate themselves with 
flowers and feathers, and keep as something valuable bits 
of colored stones. An Indian's delight in glass beads, 
and a child's pleasure over a few wild flowers, are 
natural human instincts. Men may preach dreary 
homilies against the pomps and vanities of beautiful 
fabrics, lovely v»^orks in gold, and charming displays of 
color in precious stones ; but men and women will 
continue to admire beauty in every form till the end of 
time. 

Civilized people smile at the paint and feathers of 
the savage, but it is not at his love of the beautiful, 
.but at his want of culture. The admiration of gems and 
precious stones is perfectly consistent with the highest 
culture and refinement. The savage simply admires 
things of little value or doubtful beauty. Culture im- 



SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 19 

plies that the love of the beautiful shall be reasonable. 
The wish to possess and use objects of beauty and art, 
far from being a snare and temptation, is perfectly con- 
sistent with the highest morality. The love of adorn- 
ment, which the savage gratifies with beads and paint, 
the civilized man gratifies with wonderful fabrics, artis- 
tic jewelry, and the charming art of the lapidary. 

When modern research began to pry into the secrets 
of dead and forgotten cities, the first spadefuls of vol- 
canic tufa were brilliant with beautiful glass and bits of 
broken ornaments. There were found rings of gold, 
necklaces of beautiful stones, and cut gems that were 
pictures and jewels in one. The oldest mummy cases 
contain articles of adornment, and when Schliemann 
dug up old Troas, deep under the mold of centuries, he 
found ornaments of gold and precious stones. The 
rudest tools of the old cave dwellers, the arms and oars 
of the lake dwellers, the oldest things made by hands, 
show, in a greater or less degree, the same deep-seated 
instinct in the hearts of men. The desire for personal 
adornment and the love of the beautiful is thus older 
than history. Modern civilization seeks not to repress 



20 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 

this instinct, but to cultivate it, to teach what is the 
best, to show what is really and truly the most beauti- 
ful, and to show why one thing is more beautiful than 
another. Good taste selects the best, shows that art 
must be joined to nature, and points out the difference 
between a bit of quartz and a precious stone. 

SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH GEMS. 

While gems and precious stones have been sought 
after for centuries, while they have been worn by every 
people, it is only in very recent times that they have 
been rightly regarded. Ascetics have frowned upon 
them as snares and allurements from pious living. The 
superstitious have given gems strange attributes that were 
half poetical, half childish, and wholly imaginary. The 
fables that have clung to them appear to have started in 
the East. The natives fancy that rubies ripen, like vege- 
table matter in the ground, being first yellow and then red. 
In China, bags of small rubies are placed under the 
foundations of new houses to bring good luck to the 
dwelling and its inhabitants. In the early Christian 
centuries, rubies were said to ward off wicked spirits, 



SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 21 

and to keep the one who wore them in a cheerful state 
of mind. So widely do different generations repeat the 
same fables. Ignorant peoples always impute to magic, 
luck, or fate, that which they cannot understand. Pliny 
relates that on the shore of the island of Cyprus there 
was a stone lion, having eyes formed of emeralds which 
shone so brightly that all the fishes were ingloriously 
frightened av/ay. The fishermen accordingly pulled the 
emeralds out, and put in glass eyes instead, whereupon 
the wise fishes became bolder and returned to their 
accustomed nets. Isidorus, Bishop of Seville, was not 
much wiser than the fishes, for he said that the emerald 
was such a beautiful and healthy gem that the lapida- 
ries who cut them always had good eyesight. This is 
the source of a superstition at present in vogue that 
wearing an emerald is good for the eyes. 

The Bible mentions the twelve stones in the High 
Priest's breast-plate (see frontispiece), the sard, the 
topaz, the emerald, the carbuncle, the sapphire, the 
jasper, the ligure, the agate, the amethyst, the diamond 
or chrysolite, the onyx, and the beryl. Each stone was 
engraved with the name of the tribe to which it was 



22 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 

consecrated, and the two onyx stones in the shoulder-- 
knots were also engraved with the names of the twelve 
tribes of Israel. The Jews, had a tradition, that when, 
on the day of atonement, the High Priest asked the 
Ahiiighty forgiveness for the sins of the whole nation, 
if they were forgiven, the stones in the Urim and 
Thummim shone most brightly ; if the contrary they- 
became black. 

The opal is used in Sir Walter Scott's novel, entitled 
"Anne of Geierstein," in a manner ridiculously childish. 
If superstition must be attached to this stone, let it be 
that of the ancients, who said that it brought every 
possible good to its possessors. The most simple natural 
laws are quite sufficient to account for all the magic that 
is imputed to gems. The belief in the occult properties 
of precious stones is only a survival of barbaric ignorance ; 
gems are precious because of their wonderful beauty 
and rarity. They make charming and acceptable gifts, 
and chaste and comely ornaments, but it is solely on 
account of their beauty. 



SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 23 

BEAUTY AND VALUE OF PRECIOUS STONES. 

The beauty of stones appears to be quite complex. 
It springs in part from their color, their peculiar power 
of reflecting and dispersing light, and from the artistic 
manner in which they are treated on the lapidary's wheel. 
The commercial value of such stones arises in part from 
their beauty, and in part from their rarity, and should 
be governed by their beauty rather than anything else, 
but this seems to require a more artistic appreciation of 
gems than has yet been given them. 

A precious stone is a mineral that by its beauty of 
color, its hardness and density, and certain optical prop- 
erties, is distinguished from the common stones of the 
field. When we come to examine these properties by the 
light of science, we find that they have naturally more 
real and abiding value than any fictitious worth that 
could be given them by belief in their power to 
bring good luck or ward off disease or ill fortune. 

The extreme hardness of such stones as the diamond, 
the sapphire, and the spinel enables them to resist the ac- 
tion of moisture, of frost, and oxidation. All other forms 



24 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 

of art-work — sculptures, paintings and buildings — molder 
and decay in time. Gems have outlasted them all 
Jewels have been found that have scarcely lost their lus- 
trous surface after being buried for thousands of years. 
It is of great interest to observe the peculiar optical 
qualities and colors of gems, for these give them their 
beauty and make the chief measure of their value. Pre- 
cious stones have been supposed to give out light. This 
is not true, except in the case of phosphorescent light, 
and this is so feeble that it is of no value. All diamonds 
are black in the dark, but in the light of the sun or a lamp 
they appear to shine as if giving light themselves. Rays 
of light and flames of fire have been said, by highly im- 
aginative persons, to flash from brilliant gems, but such, 
people have been simply misled by their own senses. 
Reflection and dispersion of light are quite sufficient to 
explain, on a simple scientific basis, the charming dis- 
play of light and colors of the diamond and the flashing 
rays of other cut gems. Besides these properties nearly 
all precious stones have the power of refracting light, 
while a fev/ exhibit two colors, one by reflected and 
another by transmitted light. 



SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 25 

Closely allied to refraction is the dispersion of light. 
If a ray of sunlight passes through any transparent body 
that is cut into the form of a prism, the ray is split into 
the solar spectrum, and shows all the colors of the rain- 
bow. If any clear stone is properly cut, as in the brill- 
iant or rose form of cutting, the gem will make quite a 
number of prisms joined together. Each side of the 
gem will be one face of a prism, and the light passing 
through it will be dispersed into all the different colors 
of the rainbow. As some of the prisms will be more or 
less imperfect, only parts of the spectra will be seen, and 
the same colorless stone will flash out rays of red, blue, 
and other colored lights. It is this dispersion that gives 
all the wonderful play of color to gems. 

There is an impression in this country that the clear 
white diamond is the most beautiful of all precious 
stones. It is certainly very valuable, but it is not by 
any means the most beautiful in color. 

It seems strange that people have been content with a 
colorless stone, while beautiful gems that have colors 
of wonderful richness and purity have been com- 
paratively neglected. By the use of color the work 



26 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 

of the jeweler is raised to a fine art. He selects 
from the apparently endless varieties certain precious 
stones, precisely as the painter selects his colors, and 
combining Jiem judiciously, produces a work of art. 
If he uses diamonds it is as a foil to set off the colors, 
just as the florist in making an artistic bunch of flowers 
uses white roses among his carnations and violets to 
enhance their beauty. 

It has been the aim, in this brief monograph, 
to show what constitutes a real gem, to point out 
the varieties and colors of such stones, and to show 
their value in art. It is only in modern civilization 
that gems have been rightly understood and ap- 
preciated, though they have been worn by the peo- 
ples of every time. Some of the most beautiful stones 
have been made the subject of false estimates and 
strange superstitions, and it is the endeavor here to 
show that beauty alone should decide the merit of 
precious stones. 








?T«( 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 110 508 



t-. -''^.v 



'. , , >' 



i^<:^?^^ 






••■'$^"^1^ 



' ■' f ,»■ 



"';•^ »■ '■ ' 






t. -i; 



,•' ■■', ,'■' x'' ■ i. 



iM. v^-, 






